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Untitled Article
indicates the worth of petitions , and may help us towards a correct interpretation of them as exponents of public feeling . Petitions are by no means to be disregarded , because the numbers in which they are presented may have been multiplied by means of some
kind of organization in the parties petitioning . Where the organization results from interest in the subject , it evidences the strength of desire or determination . Millions would have organized themselves for obtaining Constitutional reform , but for the Six Acts , and other laws against Political Associations . When ,
as in the case of the several ecclesiastical bodies , the organization has arisen from a different principle , and is legally recognised and permanent , it is evidence of power in the petitioners , an indication not to be overlooked by the party petitioned . It bears on the prudence , if not on the merits of the case . Sometimes the petitions are few , not because there is no popular interest in the subject , but because there is little hope from the Legislature , All the circumstances connected with petitions require to be considered , to arrive at a just notion of the respect due to them .
In petitions of the first class , those which pray for Constitutional Reforms , we have included those for the repeal of the Taxes on Knowledge . They ought not to be confounded with such as emanate from the mere desire for the removal of a pecuniary burden . The object of the petitioners is public instruction . They think that the greatest possible amount of
information , on whatever affects the well being of the community , should be dispensed to the greatest possible number , and at the lowest possible rate . They think that a good Government , like a good man , should love the light , and that only a tolerably strong light on the proceedings of a Government can keep it good . Many of them think that it would be much more right and reasonable , that the diffusion of information should , if needful , be secured by
taxation , rather than be repressed , and to a great extent suppressed , by taxation . They would have provision for public information regarded as an integral portion of the national institutions . And they know , and have offered to demonstrate to Ministers , that so far from any sacrifice being necessary , the revenue
might be improved by the removal of the present prohibitory duty on cheap newspapers . The character of these petitions is not financial but constitutional . Although not numerous , they have that claim on respect which arises from a high average of signatures , ( nearly 900 to each . ) In this particular , they rank above the other petitions of this class , and form a class by themselves . The petitions for the Ballot ( which are first in the gross amount of petitioners ) stand next , ( 666 , ) and for the repeal of the Septennial Act , third , ( 619 . ) The order accurately expresses , we apprehend , the wishes of the thorough reformers . The total amount of signatures may be thought to show the feebleness of that description of politicians . The inference would be somewhat hasty .
Untitled Article
Petitions to Parliament . 445
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1833, page 445, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2618/page/5/
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